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Aluminium Teflon Coated Mouse Pad for Optical Mice

Hey, this is my first Instructable so I hope I didn't mess it up to bad! Let me know how ! did!

I recently got a new desk and and I had a lot of trouble with my optical mouse and its not functioning with the surface.

I did a lot of research and found that new optical mice work very well on Teflon coated materials. Immediately I bolted up the stairs and grabbed my mothers T-Fal frying pan. Upon trying it out i realized how responsive and precise the mouse was now reacting (not to mention the Teflon pads of the mouse on the Teflon top is slick as butter) . After looking at some Teflon pads online i thought... "hey, there expensive.... imma build one of those." The next day I stopped at Wal-mart an picked up a Teflon Coated pan.

Step 1: Materials

Materials: Any Teflon Coated pan really. I used a two burner skillet cause I wanted something fairly large.

This cost me about $25

Step 2: Tools

-A cutting device: I used a hand grinder with a cutoff wheel attached, but you could use a jigsaw, or maybe a Dremel.
-A Metre stick, yard stick, or ruler.
-A pencil
-An old knife
-A bastard file
-Some sandpaper
-A sink with soapy water

Step 3: Marking Out What Size Pad You Want

Use the Metre stick and pencil to mark out the size of the mouse pad you want. your probably better off doing this on the bottom of the pan so you can see the pencil better while cutting. Actually.. your probably better of not using a pencil at all, that all I had at the time so grab a Sharpie instead!

Step 4: Cutting It Out

Cut across your lines using your cutting device. this will leave you with very rough and very sharp so be careful while handling.

Step 5: Scraping, Filing and Sanding

Use your old knife (and I stress old, cause it'll be pretty dull when your done with it) and scrape all the rough frayed metal from the edges of the board.

Next use your bastard and file the edges semi-smooth. make them so there not sharp any more just rough.

Finally take your sand paper and give the edges a good going over. After this they should be smooth as a baby's bottom.

Step 6: The Most Important Step: Give It a Nice Relaxing Bath.

The entire process of cutting, scraping, filing and sanding will leave the mouse pad in an absolute mess of metal dust and debris.

In order keep the Teflon topcoat in good shape and to keep from ruining the entire project....

We must wash!

Just rinse all the the big metal filing off of the board first, then emerge the whole thing down into soapy water. Give it a quick rinse again then towel dry.

If you forget the fact that wood cutting blades have a lot less teeth so they tend to bite into ali rather than cut through it. A hacksaw will also cut wood BUT just use the correct tool and you will avoid stuffups and hopefully injuries. OK. Worksafe.

whoahhhh.... that grinder is really dangerous You should replace it with one that has a guard for cutoff disks. That way when the disk breaks, you won't end up with shards of hardened sand inside of you